Ann Leckie

“I’d as­sumed that the Clarke was far too ‘lit­er­ary’ an award to go to my space opera ad­ven­ture, so I took the short­list­ing for a kind of win all its own and dis­missed the pos­si­bil­ity of ac­tu­ally get­ting the prize. I was ab­so­lutely as­ton­ished to win.”